A Belated Valentine's Post

   Valentine's Day at our house this year was very low-key due to the fact that both my son and my husband have been sick since the middle of last week with a very bad cold and cough with fever.  

   In the morning, we gave the kids their Valentine's goodies.  I had a card for my husband, but no gift yet (which didn't matter to him because he was so completely ill).  

   So, with my Hubster and Little Guy napping and my daughter playing with her Littlest Pet Shop toys, I got an idea from Becky over at her Patchwork Posse blog to make a fabric postcard (link to her free tutorial here) for my husband for Valentine's Day. 

   Here's my initial attempt:

   It's actually bigger than a postcard and more of a fabric collage`.  I worked on it in little spurts throughout the day, and then decided I really didn't like the whole landscape thing after all!!  So now I am going to scale it back to postcard size (below) -- keep it simple and add embellishments.  

I selected a pair of red-crowned (Japanese) cranes because they are a symbol of fidelity, long life and good health.  Crane pairs mate for life.   I used to work with captive cranes at The International Crane Foundation in Baraboo, WI and they are AMAZING creatures. 

   I will post the final postcard version when I'm finished.  

   So the big highlight of my day was walking out to the mailbox with my daughter (and getting some fresh, cool air!!)-- and look what arrived in the mailbox:  I won a giveaway!!  YAHOO!!   I never win anything!!  I love quilters and quilt bloggers!!  They are such generous people!! THANK YOU, THANK YOU to Brenda at Quilting Cowgirl.  She is doing giveaways throughout the month of February for her birthday, so click on the link to check her out.

I won 24 beautiful batik fat quarters, and a pattern to use them with-- Yay me!!

But my Valentine's Day continues to yesterday...

   And gets even BETTER!

      The Hubster was well enough to go to the Apple Store (allegedly for some software) and came home with:

bright pink case

A MacBook Air!!!  For me!!! (for a combination of Chanukah, Valentine's and my upcoming 45th birthday next week)

It is AMAZING and sooooo lightweight!!

And it fits in my pocketbook, too!!

   Since this is a quilting post, after all, I displayed it on one of my UFO's: a Trip Around The World quilt top in colors to match my daughter's sheets.  (Soft pink minkee is going on the back).

So now the pressure's on for me to really do this blogging thing!!  I was trying to be laid back about it.  I better get those juices flowing in my brain!!

I'm off now to play and experiment with my new, wonderful toy!! (and hopefully come up with some new ideas for the blog!)

Have a great day!